1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a printer for forming desired images by transferring ink from an ink ribbon to paper according to a heat transfer method, and more particularly to a thermal printer having an image editing function for printing an image on a portion of an image which has previously been printed.
2. Description of the Related Art
A black-and-white thermal printers have an image editing function for printing a second image on part of a first image previously printed. In order to print an image on paper, the thermal printer necessitates an ink ribbon of the same size as the printing paper so that, in order to print two images on the printing paper by utilizing the image editing function, it becomes necessary to provide an ink ribbon corresponding to two sheets of printing paper.
A color thermal printer has been developed which is of such a type as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,637.
However, no such image editing function has yet been provided for color thermal printers, though it has been considered to provide the image editing function for the color printer.
However, an ink ribbon used for the color thermal printer includes yellow, cyan, magenta and black ink areas which are sequentially arranged and each of which has substantially the same size as the printing paper, and it is necessary to selectively use yellow, cyan, magenta and black inks. Since it is necessary to provide an ink ribbon corresponding to two sheets of printing paper in the case where the image editing function is provided for the color thermal printer, it becomes economically disadvantageous.